GOOD TALK WITH KRISTI JACOBSON
Director of SOLITARY
Kristi Jacobson is an award-winning filmmaker whose films capture nuanced, intimate and provocative portrayals of individuals and communities. Kristi's GOOD TALK for students focuses on criminology and people’s experiences inside prisons. She has been a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and MSNBC’s The Cycle, and her work has been featured in publications including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Time Magazine. Her groundbreaking film SOLITARY is the culmination of a life-long interest in the criminal justice system. SOLITARY is a daring exploration of the lives of inmates and corrections officers in one of America's most notorious supermax prisons, which was built to hold inmates 23 hours a day in 8x10 cells for months, years and sometimes decades. With unprecedented access, the film captures a complex, unexpected and deeply moving portrait of life inside. Kristi’s 2013 film, A Place at the Table, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and examines the shocking paradox of hunger in the wealthiest nation on earth through the very personal stories of three American families who face food insecurity daily. The film is the cornerstone of a multi-year campaign to end hunger in the US. Kristi’s directorial debut was American Standoff, produced by two-time Oscar®-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple. The film examines the role of unions in modern times and premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival before its broadcast on HBO’s award-winning America Undercover series. Most recently, Kristi was a 2016 recipient of the Chicken & Egg Breakthrough Award, which aims to support filmmakers to continue to be strong advocates for urgent issues.